Newsletter: Mark Dybul lecture in two weeks | Australian aid risks | #AAC2016

Head of Global Fund to deliver 2016 Mitchell Oration

Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, will deliver the 2016 Harold Mitchell Development Policy Lecture in just two weeks’ time, so make sure you register soon.

A leading voice on global health, Mark has been in the top job at the Global Fund since 2012, and previously served as the US Global AIDS Coordinator.

He will be speaking on the topic Exciting, challenging, frightening times – global health, development and the stuff of innovation”. The lecture will be held at 5:30pm in the Molonglo Theatre, Monday 29 February 2016. Register here. For those who aren’t in Canberra, we’ll also be livestreaming it on the web, and will have the stream details online soon.

Australian aid: signs of risk

It’s been a tumultuous two years for the aid program with massive budget cuts and the AusAID-DFAT integration. The 2015 Australian Aid Stakeholder Survey, a follow-up to the one we conducted in 2013, highlights the risks associated with these changes. The majority of aid stakeholders think that the quality of Australian aid has worsened over the last two years. The survey results shows particularly sharp declines in perceptions of aid program funding predictability, staff expertise, a lack of strategic clarity, transparency, communication and community engagement.

If you missed last Thursday’s survey launch, you can catch up on Terence Wood’s presentation of the key findings here. Also read our blog, op-ed and check out the media coverage here.

The full survey report, Australian aid: signs of risk, should be compulsory reading for anyone with an interest in Australian aid.

IMG_84992016 Australasian Aid Conference wrap

Thank you to everyone who attended and made our 2016 Australasian Aid Conference our biggest and best yet, with packed rooms right up to the very last session, and high-quality papers and discussions throughout.

If you missed the conference, you can watch webcasts of the keynotes and plenaries on Day 1 and Day 2 – from Peter Varghese’s opening address (full text here), to Kitty van der Heijden’s rousing keynote on sustainability, the stakeholder survey launch, discussions on the SDGs in Asia, and the Paris climate talks.

We are currently in the process of uploading Powerpoint presentations to the conference website, which will be available here, and podcasts of some sessions will be available in the coming weeks.

For those who did attend, please remember to complete our feedback survey.

Many thanks to our conference organizers – Ashlee Betteridge, Camilla Burkot, and Macarena Rojas – as well as the volunteers who helped us run the event: Sienna Lake, Husnia Hushang, Sarah Heywood, Stephanie Rowell, Jacqui Battin, Sachini Muller and Gina Zheng.

We’ve uploaded a whole heap of photos from the conference to our Facebook page, so do take a look and feel free to tag yourself! There was also a lot of action on the conference hashtag on Twitter, #AAC2016.

Pacific labour mobility report launch: postponed

The launch of our new labour mobility report written jointly with the World Bank, earlier scheduled for Friday 26 February, has been postponed. We’ll let you know when it is on.

Upcoming events

2016 Harold Mitchell Development Policy Annual Lecture

With Mark Dybul. Monday 29 February, 5.30pm, Molonglo Theatre. Register here.

Blog highlights

Drought: on the ground in Goroka and Ethiopia

How to secure political support for quality education?

Robin Davies proposes a new humanitarian fund

On the blog

Zika – a new public health emergency? By Sam Byfield

If this is the way the world works… by Gordon Peake

Australian aid: signs of risk by Terence Wood, Camilla Burkot and Stephen Howes

Political intrigues in the Pacific islands – the dire need for political stability by Transform Aqorau

Can developing countries afford the SDGs? By Chris Hoy

Too important to flail: a strategic financing mechanism for humanitarian assistance by Robin Davies

The importance of national and local politics for improving educational quality by Grant Walton

El Niño in Ethiopia by Susanne Legena

Pacific colleagues review NZ development cooperation by Jo Spratt

PNG drought response: reporting from Goroka by Paul Kelly

The Pacific’s state of independence by Stewart Firth

In brief
Another new Minister for International Development and the Pacific
Fortnightly links: geopolitics of conflict, dam failures, aid profiles, and more…

Australasian Aid Conference Livestream

Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea – small but significant progress

Women MPs doubled in Myanmar’s new-look parliament

Canberra book launch: Sean Dorney’s The Embarrassed Colonialist

 

This is the fortnightly newsletter of the Development Policy Centre at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, published every second Friday.

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